USS Macon ZRS-5 Vintage Navy Airship Photo, NAS Sunnyvale 1933 8x10 For Sale

USS Macon ZRS-5 Vintage Navy Airship Photo
NAS Sunnyvale 1933 8x10
Official Navy Photo, Maiden Flight at Her New Pacific Fleet HomeDESCRIPTIONAn official U.S. Navy photograph of the rigid airship USS Macon (ZRS-5) at the South Mooring Circle, U.S. Naval Air Station Sunnyvale, California, on October 26, 1933, the day she made her first flight from her new West Coast home, just eleven days after arriving from Lakehurst, New Jersey. This exact date and event is independently documented across three institutional collections: the National Archives / NASA Ames Research Center (image ARC-1969-A91-0261-5), the National Museum of the U.S. Navy (image NMUSN-5169, which notes her "preparatory to take-off at Moffett Field, October 26, 1933"), and the Getty Images editorial archive, which describes it as her "maiden voyage at Moffett Field." This print is an official Naval Photographic Center release, printed from the Navy's original file negative and carrying a typed Naval Photographic Center caption card on the reverse, negative number 1148229, with a RELEASED stamp confirming it was cleared for period publication.Macon and her sister ship USS Akron were, at 785 feet, among the largest flying objects ever built, and both served as flying aircraft carriers, launching and recovering Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk fighters in flight. Hangar One, the massive structure visible behind Macon in this photo, had only been commissioned that April specifically to house her, since neither of the Navy's East Coast facilities could accommodate a ship her size. It still stands today at what is now Moffett Field and later became famous as the building Google leased for decades. The Naval Photographic Center caption calls Macon a "blimp," a bit of period looseness in the Navy's own paperwork since she was in fact a rigid, metal framed airship rather than a true pressure blimp. Macon operated with the Pacific fleet for barely sixteen months before she was lost in a storm off Point Sur, California, on February 12, 1935, a loss that effectively ended the U.S. Navy's rigid airship program.The print measures approximately 8 x 9 1/4 inches and is printed on Kodak photographic paper, identifiable by the manufacturer's watermark visible across the reverse. Every effort is made for fact checking and provenance, including background research through news and historical archives. If any listing is incorrect in any way and you're unsatisfied with the item, please connect with me and I'll make it right. Orders placed before Noon CDT ship same day via Ground Advantage with tracking, so you know exactly when it will arrive. Returns accepted on all items exceeding $25 in cost. All shipments receive rigid, professional packaging, sealed and protected in acid free sleeves. Shipping is free and already built into the price, so the BIN price is exactly what you pay, no surprise shipping costs at checkout.CONDITIONOfficial Naval Photographic Center print with bright, well contrasted tones between the pale hull and the overcast sky. All four corners show light bends consistent with archival handling, none of them affecting the image area. A fine, faint crease line crosses the lower hull near the MACON lettering and U.S. NAVY markings, visible on close inspection but not disruptive to the overall image. A few small, scattered surface specks appear near the lower edge, none of them obscuring the airship or the ground crew. The reverse caption card shows light toning and the expected watermark pattern from the Kodak photographic paper, with all typed text, the negative number, and the RELEASED stamp fully legible. No tears, no creases through the main image, and no writing on the front of the photograph.